Good morning. Turn to Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy
chapter 32. Sometimes I think, all of us have seen these schedules.
Bible reading schedules where you read certain chapters and
all that stuff. If we disagree on this, that's
okay. We're not going to be disfriended or anything like that. Sometimes
I think those things are a detriment to us. Because when we sit down
to read and keep on that schedule, we read too fast. And we read to accomplish our
goal rather than to understand what we're reading. That's my opinion. Add two cents
to it, I guess, and well, you can't even buy a cup of coffee. This morning I want us to pay
particular attention to the language. What is it saying? And who is
it saying it to? Deuteronomy chapter 32 is a song
which Moses recorded. But it is instructive to God's
people. And those who are not God's people.
The first four verses of this chapter, in their context, though
it is a song, the first four verses are a statement of the
first thing, the very first thing that will be brought to the memory
of God's people, God's elect. when they fall into sin, when
they become aware of their shortcomings, when they become aware of what
they are. Simply stated, and to paraphrase
what's said in these first four verses, is that they will remember
God's gospel. The good news of the complete
salvation of His people. I'll just ask you, have you ever
been there? Have you ever been cast down
in a state of hating yourself and what you are? Find yourself desiring to be
something that you're not able to be, that you can't be. I hope so. because there's nothing
so comforting and so refreshing as to recall the words of these
first four verses right here. Give ear, O ye heavens. Now that's important. He's saying
to the earth, the planets, the heavens, the clouds, the atmosphere,
listen to me, listen to me. And not only angels and men are
included in that. He says, Hear, O earth. Everybody. Everybody. What does He want
you to hear? The words of His mouth. The words
of His mouth. Verse 2, He says, My doctrine. My gospel of Your redemption
in Christ. My doctrine. shall drop as the
rain. It'll drop from heaven. My speech,
my word shall distill. It'll be here out of nowhere.
It'll come to mind out of nowhere. It will distill. That's where
the dew comes from. I mean, it didn't rain last night,
but the grass is wet. It just appeared. It just appeared. As the dew, as the small rain
upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. Why
will it do this? Third verse, because. Because
I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe you greatness unto
our God. Verse four, he is the rock, that's
Christ. His work is perfect. As your substitute now, His work
is your work. You see that? His work is perfect. For all His ways are judgment,
a God of truth and without iniquity. That's Christ. Just, right, is
He. Just and right is He. Now, as
He is, so are we in this world. Can you see that? This is what
our Lord says He will bring to our mind when we have that sense
of our sin. Reminding us that we stand perfect
in Him. Now having stated that, what
we will recall and remember when we fall into sin, our Lord, beginning
in verse 5, sets forth a difference between the sins of His people
and the sins of the lost or the non-elect. Verse 5 says, they,
not us now, they have corrupted themselves. Their spot is not
the spot of His children. They are a perverse and crooked
generation. Do you thus repay the Lord? That's requite, repay. Do you repay the Lord, O foolish
people and unwise? Is not He thy Father that hath
bought thee? Have He not made thee and established
you? He put you where you are, in
Christ. Remember the days of old, verse
7. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your Father, and He'll show
thee thy elders, and they will tell thee all the prophets, all
the fathers, from Abraham all the way to the generation of
Christ. They recorded these things concerning Christ. Verse 8, when
the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, now
pay particular attention to this now. When He separated, when the Most High divided to
the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of
Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number
of the children of Israel. Everything, everything in God's
providence and everything that happens in this world is centered
around the good of His Israel. That's us. For the Lord's portion,
verse 9, is His people. Jacob is the lot
of His inheritance. That's who we are, Jacob's deceivers. Those with spot, just like everybody
else. And I think it's important to
make this point. Sin is sin. All sin is against God. And it's
worthy of death. There's no such thing as a small
sin or a big sin. All sin is against God to whom
greatness is ascribed. There in verse 3. Ascribed ye
greatness. All sin is against Him. But our
Lord makes a distinction between their sin and our sin. What is it? He says that their
spot, the sin of a people who have corrupted themselves in
verse 5, first part of verse 5, and are a perverse and crooked
generation, that's not the spot, that's not the sin of His children. See that? This description in
verse five is not part of a new paragraph or a new thought that
comes up here. What our Lord says here is part
of the same thought that declared the glory and the success of
His work in the first four verses. Those who have corrupted themselves
are not given this song. Get that now. They are not given
this song. to be brought to their mind when
they sin, to have no conscience of it. It's solely for the people
of God and His children when they sin. Let that sink in. For God to
bring this to the mind of His people only, just simply for
that fact, It can only be a reminder to all of us that salvation is
by grace and totally the work of God. While studying this,
I thought of Noah and the ark, and you've all heard this comment,
but I'll say it again. The scripture says that God looked
down on this earth God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. And almost immediately, he says
of Noah, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now
as we've heard this many times, I repeat it. We've heard it from
this pulpit, from our pastor. It doesn't say Noah was different. It says Noah found grace. Since all sin is sin, the distinction
brought to mind in our text is that God views His children in
a different way than He views the rest of mankind. That's just
the way it is. The difference is being found
in God's family. Children. If you have a child,
he's in your family. The spots of his children, these
verses say, are not the spots of those who are corrupt and
of a perverse and crooked generation. Verse 5, first part of it, if
you want to read it. God calls these sinners His children. They're His children and because
they are, Christ came into this world in the likeness of sinful
flesh to redeem and free them from their bondage and their
sin and their fear of death. How does He do it? He does it through the preaching
of the gospel. Paul said in Galatians, listen
to this, he said, because you are sons, because you're children,
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, you're no more a servant,
but you're a son, you're a child. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. Isaiah said, and all thy children
shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace,
that peace which comes with the memory of this psalm when you
fall into sin. Our Lord Himself said, it's written
in the prophets, they all shall be taught of God. Every man therefore
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." Psalms says that He has not dealt
with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
He hadn't dealt with us that way. For as the heaven is high
above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear
Him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." Now there's another difference
between these two categories of people. It's God. God alone. He's the difference
between the two. Not only is He the difference,
He makes the difference between their spot, verse 5, and the
children's spot. They're both described as sinners,
as having spot, and by nature they're exactly the same. I want
you to understand that. Salvation is by grace. Ephesians
Paul said, and Ephesians Paul said, we all had our conversation
in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. Who maketh thee different? God. God. Who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? And if you received it, why do
you glory in it, as if you hadst not received it? Who made the
difference? God did. Brings to question, how did He
make the difference? He made the difference through
the blood of Christ. Who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without spot. Without spot to God in the place
of His spotted children. I wish God would make us see
what a difference that makes for us in the eyes of God. The Gospel, when brought to the
memory, not only serves to bring us peace, it also is a means
of bringing conviction of sin. The Gospel discovers this spot
of ours, the spot of God's children. All things that are reproved
are made manifest by light, by the Gospel, all things. The Word
of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the defiling asunder of soul and spirit. This Gospel reminds us of our
sin and gives us peace both at the same time. And this Gospel is not revealed
in nature. I heard a comment on TV A while
back, this guy in Alaska built a cabin. He says, this is my
church. I understand what he was saying.
It causes feelings and emotions that are pretty convincing that
there is a God. But you can't know God in nature.
You can't know God aside from this book. You think the mountains
of Alaska are beautiful? This is the greatest miracle
that's ever been handed to man right here. The declaration of
the gospel seals the lost in their doom when they hear it.
But it confronts the believer with his sin in a different way.
Not only is our sin revealed, by the Gospel as forgiven and
put away, it's revealed to the believer as him being more despicable
than the sin of those who are lost. The revelation of the believer's
sin doesn't mean that he considers it somehow to be less because
it's been put away. That's not the point of this.
He sees his sin as worse because it's sin against knowledge, light,
a revelation of God. He's seen God's mighty works,
and he's experienced them, and he's heard them, and he's even
believed them. The believer knows his sin to
be sin against the knowledge that he has of God and redemption
in Christ. It's sin in the light of the
cross of Christ. And the infidel is ignorant of
that sin and its cost. The believer is made to know
by the understanding of what sin cost Christ that His sin
is exceedingly sin. That can be seen in verse 6.
This is what comes to the mind of the believer when they hear
the Gospel and are confronted with their utter failure. This
sin, this rebellion, is this how you thank God? Is this how
you repay God? for all that He's done for you?
Is this how you requite? Is this how you repay Him? The spot of the believer is sin
against the mercy and the grace of God. Is there anybody here
not guilty of it? All of us by nature are guilty
in this respect. Our Lord said in Jeremiah, He
said, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, burn incense,
to bail, and walk after other gods whom you know not, and come
and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and
say, we're delivered to do all these abominations. They call it antinomianism, I
guess. That being said, it's important
to remember here that this is not a song given to those who
might possibly fall. It's given to those who will
fall. Not to those who might be saved,
but it's given to those who have been saved. Now, first of all,
what is it that defines the spot of the believer, the child of
God? It's sin against the knowledge and light of the Father's love
that bought us redemption. Verse 6. Is not He thy Father which has
bought thee? Hath He not made thee and established
you? God our Father has redeemed us,
brought us back from the bondage of the law and sin and Satan
and self. He's bought us. In that our Father has bought us, He has a right
and a claim to our undying affection when we sin We sin against the
light of redemption, against the knowledge of redemption,
against the knowledge of the cost of our redemption. And second,
our sins against the light of the new creation. 6, verse 6,
the last part, hath He not made thee? He has made us. The wealth that's in that statement
can't be measured He's made us accepted in the
beloved. Here's some things He made us.
He's raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ. He made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life. He's made us kings and
priests unto God. and His Father. He's made us
unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth.
That's what He's made us. He made us. God's the difference.
God made the difference. Verse 6 says, He established
you. Our spot is sin against the knowledge
of His having set our feet on solid ground. the solid rock. Romans says that he's of a power
to establish you according to the gospel and the preaching
of Christ. Paul said he may establish your
hearts unblameable in holiness before God. Paul said again,
the Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep you from
evil. Our spot is sin against the knowledge
of the testimony of those who have gone before us. Look at
verse 7. Remember the days of old. Consider
the years of many generations. Ask thy father and he'll show
you. Your elders and they'll tell
you. Remember that. Remember what
they said. Remember what they brought us.
Remember what they taught us concerning God and Christ and
redemption in Him. We have heard with our ears,
O God, our fathers have told us what work Thou didst in their
days and the times of old. David said in the Psalms, when
we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. Our fathers
told us. For He established a testimony
in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which He commanded
our fathers that they should make them known to their children.
God's children. He's helped His servant Israel
in remembering His mercy. This is what He'll bring to mind
when we find ourselves aware and sensitive to our sin and
guilt within ourselves. He'll remind us of what the Father
said. He'll bring it to mind. Our spot
is sin. Our spot. Against the knowledge
of His electing grace. and the providence that He ordered
for our sake. When the Most High, verse 8,
divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated
the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people. That's
everybody. He set the bounds of the people,
the whole world, according to the number of the children of
Israel. In other words, all things work together for
good. To them that love God, who are
the called according to His purpose. That's the bounds that God sent. And every tick of the clock is
in the providence of God toward the saving of His people and
taking them out of this world. Finally, Our spot is sin against
the knowledge that God's portion is His people. Verse 9, for the
Lord's portion is His people. Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. I won't remind you of the spots
of Jacob, but just consider them. Jacob was a deceiver. He was
a supplanter. That was his name and his practice. He stole, virtually stole, the
firstborn privilege from his brother. And he was not a quote,
good man. And those are the people that
God has made his portion, sinners. with spot, and He redeemed them,
and He bought them. Not a lot can be said to describe
that statement. It's stupendous. Blessed is the
nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen
for His own inheritance. A whole nation of Jacob's. a
bunch of worthless deceivers. You know what He calls us? He
calls us His peculiar people. His peculiar treasure. This knowledge
that comes to the memory of the children of God when they fall
into sin is that their sin is not like that of the infidel,
those who are crooked and perverse. Theirs is worse. They sin against
the knowledge of all those things that God has done for them. They
have corrupted themselves. They have. Their spot is not
the spot of His children. They're a perverse and crooked
generation. Jacob is His portion. Jacob's
are His children. Jacob's are His sons. And I'll leave you with this
question. Who makes you different? Who makes you different? I hope the Lord blesses that to
our understanding.